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Tag Archives: EVE Monthly Economic Report

CCP Quant was quick again to get up the Monthly Economic Report so we can see what happened in New Eden in January. The new community page layout changed the way you interact with the report a bit. You can no longer just click on a chart to see it full size. Instead you have to right click on the charts and select the option to open them up in another tab.

Not a huge deal… unless you use Firefox… but annoying and pointless. CCP could have done better. Also, the sorting of charts was odd this time around, and a couple of the interesting bar charts got dropped. Again, not huge but annoying.

The huge deal, for me at least, is that CCP seems to have killed off the RSS feeds for their community sites. CCP seems to only care about Facebook and Twitter these days, both of which monkey with what you even see in your feed, so are completely unreliable. RSS isn’t new and sexy, but it is solid and reliable… and so CCP has abandoned it. Another metaphor in that I am sure.

CCP has yet to respond to any questions about RSS. They probably expect that nobody uses it and that nobody will notice it is gone. And who knows, they might be right, but so far it is just silence.

Anyway, the million dollar battle that wasn’t happened during the latter half of January as the Imperium mobilized and headed north with their big toys to shoot a Keepstar in Cloud Ring, so this month’s question is whether or not that had any impact on the report.

First up is mining value, where Delve continues to dominate.

January 2018 – Mining Value by Region

You can click on that chart, or any chart in this post, to see a larger version. No need to muck about opening new tabs… or another browser if you use Firefox. It isn’t hard.

The bar chart shows Delve relative to other regions.

January 2018 – Mining Value by Region – Bar Graph

The value of ore mined mined however was down to 8.1 trillion ISK in value from 11.5 trillion ISK in December.

But as I mentioned last month, that value is based on the market value of minerals in New Eden, so a drop in that price lowers the ISK amount mined, even if the total volume remains the same. So what happened to mineral prices in January?

January 2018 – Economic Indices

Mineral prices actually bounced a bit and went up. So I think we can see a palpable reduction in mining in Delve in January. Now, did the battle cause it or did everybody just have to go back to work in the new year? I don’t know, but something did have an impact.

The next indicator is everybody’s favorite to love or hate, NPC bounties, the one that shows actual ISK being brought into the economy of New Eden.

January 2018 – NPC Bounties by Region

Last month bounties in Delve were just shy of ten trillion ISK, this month they are just over 9 trillion ISK. That is still a lot, and Delve remains at the top by a fair margin… Branch, the next highest number, is just past half of Delve… but still a bit of a decline.

CCP opted not to include the bar charts associated with bounties, so we’ll skip right to the sink and faucets graph.

January 2018 – Top 8 ISK Sinks and Faucets

That chart shows a clear dip around the third week of January when a lot of null sec was suddenly pulled into this battle. Not that big of a dip though, and it spiked back up and continued its ongoing ascent, leading once again to the musical question, “Is CCP going to do something about this?” Certainly nothing has been discussed in public. Soon we’ll all be able to afford titans… unless inflation kills us.

On the trade value by region front, the bar chart that excludes The Forge region, with Jita and Perimeter, shows the Delve market continues to boom.

January 2018 – Trade Value by Region – Bar Graph, The Forge Excluded

Though the battle might have sparked some sales to get into doctrine ships, only those who produce fighters will have likely seen a boom in the post-battle market. So many fighters sacrificed.

In production Delve again remains second to The Forge, the economic heart of New Eden.

January 2018 – Production Values by Region – Bar Graph

Again, lots being built in Delve… fighters especially I imagine… but not much of it was consumed by the battle, so the build up in the region continues. You think I am joking about titans, but there is a push to get more of the Imperium into the big ships via the “make ISK, but skill injectors, skill up to a titan, make more ISK, buy a titan” path.

Finally, there is the overall summary graph that I like to include each month.

January 2018 – Regional Summary Stats

In summary, while the million dollar battle had some visible impact on the economic activities in New Eden, it wasn’t that much. You can see where it was on one of the additional graphs.

January 2018 – Peak Concurrent Players by system

There were lots of players in and about the Cloud Ring region. However, the wheels of industry continued to turn all the same.

Anyway, another month and another economic report. You can look at the full report which includes additional charts and all of the raw data if you are interested in the New Eden economy. Just mind the horrible new site that is hosting it.

CCP Quant must not have stayed up late to celebrate the coming of the new year as he had the December monthly economic report up and posted on Tuesday, leaving me to catch up.

As usual, I am viewing this through a Delve-eye lens because the region stands out amongst its null sec brethren. And December was no exception, with Delve once again leading the null sec mining parade.

December 2017 – Mining Value by Region

Delve rang in with 11.5 trillion ISK in mineral value mined over the course of the month. You can see how it stacks up to other regions more easily with the bar chart version of this data.

December 2017 – Mining Value by Region – Bar Graph

The gap between Delve and the next most mined region closed a bit, but since that region is Querious, which is under Imperium suzerainty, I am not sure those outside the coalition should be cheering.

The value of the minerals mined in Delve went down, from 13.9 trillion ISK in value in November to the above noted 11.5 trillion ISK. However, as minerals have no innate value… you can’t hand them in to an NPC for a fixed price… the total mined is measured in market value, and the mineral price index was down yet again in December.

December 2017 – Economic Indices

All that mining and the minerals have to go somewhere. Still, while the mineral price drop looks drastic on that chart, the long range chart shows that it is still nowhere close to its lowest value ever.

December 2017 – Economic Indices – Long Term

Still, mineral prices are down, though the other indices are up, so I suspect that things are not getting cheaper in Jita all the same. The disruption of T2 materials with the new moon mining mechanic… and the market speculation that preceded that… probably play into those numbers.

After minerals there is everybody’s favorite null sec range number, the NPC bounties where, once again, Delve is out in front.

December 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region

NPC bounty payouts were up some in December, hitting the 9.9 trillion ISK mark, up from 9.7 trillion ISK in November. Unlike mining, Delve does not quite dominate as much when it comes to bounties.

December 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region – Bar Graph

The Branch region saw a boost over last month, coming in second place, with Deklein and Esoteria in third and fourth.

The percentage of overall NPC bounties being claimed in null sec went down by a tiny fraction, adding up to 92.1%, down from 92.4%.

December 2017 – Bounties by Space Sec Rating

Of the total bounty payment number of 65.9 trillion ISK Delve was responsible for 15%.

The change was in favor of high sec and probably reflects the fact that there is an event running. As an ISK faucet NPC bounties remain on the rise.

December 2017 – Top 8 ISK Sinks and Faucets

The rise in NPC bounties makes me ask again if CCP will be looking to nerf that at some point, or are they too busy nerfing the agent finder and third party tools to get to that?

On the production front Delve holds second place behind The Forge.

December 2017 – Production Values by Region

However, that number is a bit deceptive as Jita, the center of New Eden, sits at the confluence of three regions.

December 2017 – Production Values by Region – Bar Graph

So if you look at it as “production around Jita” you have to include The Forge, Lonetrek, and The Citadel, which all together add up to about double Delve. So most production in New Eden happens around Jita, though the Delve number is still pretty impressive, adding up as it does to about the equivalent of Esoteria, Tribute, Deklein, and Domain.

And then there is market trade value.

December 2017 – Trade Value by Region

In this Jita, located in The Forge (along with those sales citadels in Perimeter), blows everything else out of the water. It is so far ahead that CCP Quant publishes a chart with everything besides The Forge just so the variations in the rest of the regions will stand out.

December 2017 – Trade Value by Region – Bar Graph, The Forge Excluded

With The Forge out of the accounting Domain, the home of Amarr the second city trade hub, shows up at the top of the list with 76 trillion ISK in trade, or a little more than 10% of the number for The Forge. Behind that is Delve with a little over 41 trillion ISK in trade value, followed by three more high sec systems with their own trade systems.

Finally, there is the region summary chart that compares some of the most active regions.

December 2017 – Regional Summary Stats

Even with all the production going on in Delve the region still imports 51 trillion ISK, most of which I am sure comes from Jita. I am not sure if the Delve shipping services ever offer Amarr, which is closer, as a standard shipping option. With the jump fuel changes that came with the December update the per square meter charge to get things shipped to and from Jita went up 20%. I am not sure if that was responsible for the 34 trillion ISK drop in imports into the region when compared to November or if there simply wasn’t a need to import as much.

Anyway, another month and another economic report. You can look at the full report which includes additional charts and all of the raw data if you are interested in the New Eden economy.

As noted in the title, mining in Delve was down some, dropping from 14.6 trillion ISK in October to 13.9 trillion ISK in November.

November 2017 – Mining Value by Region

However, as I have mentioned in the past, the mining chart is measured by the value of the ore extracted and, as we can see from the price index chart, that value has continued its slide.

November 2017 – Economic Indices

With as much of dip as that, it is quite possible that more ore was extracted in Delve last month, when compared to October, rather than less.

Still, some regions appear to be down more than others. I wonder if something is going on in Fade, and Branch… maybe somebody hot dropping miners… because the numbers for those regions seem down much more than the decline in price might explain.

As you can see on CCP Quant’s new bar chart Branch, which was in seventh place, has fallen further down the list.

November 2017 – Mining Value by Region – Bar Graph

Likewise, Fade seems to have fallen a few places in the stack, though Deklein, where we have been having some battles, still seems to be holding onto its spot.

On the bounties front it probably surprises exactly zero people that Delve remained in the lead for November.

November 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region

Bounty payouts in Delve were up a few billion, though I contributed even less than my usual hundred million or so to the number as I did not rat even once during the month.

November 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region – Bar Graph

Branch was down a bit over last month, but most other regions seemed to hold steady or were up somewhat for November.

There there is the “make non-null sec players rage” chart that shows null sec grew slightly in total percentage of bounty payouts, going from 92.1% to 92.4%, with both high and low sec declining every so slightly.

November 2017 – Bounties by Space Sec Rating

Wormhole space remained at its normal zero percent because they get paid out by NPCs for drops from their rats, the sales of which totaled to about 19 trillion ISK in value. If counted as bounties that would change the mix somewhat, though the fact that they have to ship them out of wormhole space to cash in adds to the complexity.

On the sinks and faucets chart bounties payouts were slumping slightly towards the end of November.

November 2017 – Top 8 ISK Sinks and Faucets

Even with that ever so slight dip bounties remain in the zone where CCP previously expressed the opinion that they were too high, so it remains to be seen if CCP will turn an eye towards super carrier ratting for further nerfs.

On production Delve remains a significant force and, last I heard, the region still needed to import some minerals to keep the factories running apace.

November 2017 – Production Values by Region

As we have seen in the past, production in the three regions around Jita, the trade hub for New Eden, dominates, but Delve still stands out on the bar chart.

November 2017 – Production Values by Region – Bar Graph

And, of course, when it comes to market value The Forge, home of Jita, stands out well ahead of all others.

November 2017 – Trade Value by Region

This dominance is especially visible on the bar chart where there is The Forge and then

November 2017 – Trade Value by Region – Bar Graph

The contrast is so striking that CCP Quant added a bar graph without The Forge just so that you could compare the other regions visually without them seeming, as my grandfather might put it, flatter than piss on a plate.

November 2017 – Trade Value by Region – Bar Graph, The Forge Excluded

There you can see Delve ringing in at about half the rate as Domain, home to Amarr, the Chicago of trade hubs to Jita’s New York City. All those Goons are up to something.

Finally, the regional summary chart of key indices that gives a nice combined picture for a set of regions.

November 2017 – Regional Summary Stats

As usual I am mostly reveling in the fact that EVE Online is the kind of game where the economy is so central that CCP reports on it regularly. Reporting on Delve just gives me a chance to go on about the importance of the economy in New Eden. I certainly cannot claim to have influenced anything that happened in Delve. I am pretty sure I haven’t set foot in the region for at least a month.

The EVE Onlinemonthly economic report for October is out, confirming at least that CCP Quant remains on staff at CCP. And out in Delve it seems that the Rorquals are running all hours of the day to burn down rocks for ore, as it leads the charts by a significant margin over any other region.

October 2017 – Mining Value by Region

CCP Quant has provided an additional chart to help visualize the mining gap.

October 2017 – Mining Value by Region – Bar Graph

By my back of the envelope tally, roughly one third of all mining value in New Eden came out of rocks in the Delve region.

Value of ore mined is determined by the market value of the ore, so that the number is up from 12 trillion ISK in September to 16 trillion ISK in October might not necessarily mean more ore mined. Unless the price of ore and minerals went down this month, and they did.

October 2017 – Economic Indices

Mineral prices, having jumped in August and September, were down in October. So the boost in mining output might have been an attempt to cash in on rising prices, leading to enough pressure to push down the recent highs.

This was all pretty much in advance of the Lifeblood expansion which came out on October 24th. Next months report should begin to show the impact of the new moon mining mechanics on mining output.

On the bounties front Delve again led the pack.

October 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region

However, the lead by Delve on bounties wasn’t anything like the lead in mining. Again, a new chart to help compare.

October 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region – Bar Graph

Delve is more than double its nearest competitor… no deployments or wars in or around Delve to slow anybody down right now… so it is all go go go for ratting.

Meanwhile, on the overall sinks and faucets chart bounties have again crept up to nearly their previous all time high, leading one to wonder if CCP is going to need to nerf super carrier and carrier ratting some more.

October 2017 – Top 8 ISK Sinks and Faucets

Overall bounty payouts for October were only 3 trillion ISK higher than September, but the trend is worrying.

On the production front, Delve remained a significant player.

October 2017 – Production Values by Region

Once more we have a nice new chart to help visualize how regions stack up.

October 2017 – Production Values by Region – Bar Graph

The Forge region is out in front, and regions around the Jita trade hub (The Forge, Lonetrek, and The Citadel) dominate production, but Delve is not far behind when measuring individual regions.

Finally, the regional summary chart of key indices.

October 2017 – Regional Summary Stats

Sitting in Delve, mining, ratting, and building, one might wonder what we plan to do with all of that economic might. It has been very quiet down in the southwest for weeks now.

Anyway, these charts and more are posted, along with the raw data, here.

CCP Quant was really on his game this past weekend as the Monthly Economic Report for September was already available yesterday morning. So it is time again to see what was going on in Delve.

During much of August there was a full deployment out of the region for The Imperium, leaving miners and ratters unprotected, which led to a significant dip in those activities. For September the coalition was mostly back home, with a Judgement Day diversion to camp the Keepstar at 68FT-6.

September 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region

NPC bounty payouts in Delve were back up, landing just shy of 7.9 trillion ISK. That still puts them below the July number of 8.4 trillion ISK and well short of the pre-super nerf high of 8.8 trillion ISK.

Bounty payouts were also up in other regions, notably Branch and Deklein, where the Guardians of the Galaxy coalition lives. That boosted bounties on the ISK sink/faucet chart to what seems to be the new normal. It still seems too high, so I expect CCP will find another way to nerf things.

September 2017 – Top 8 ISK Sinks and Faucets

I am always interested to see how very steady the Agent Mission Rewards line is on that chart. That seems to indicate a very stable and dedicated group of mission runners out there somewhere.

As with NPC bounties, mining was likewise back up in Delve.

September 2017 – Mining Value by Region

The miners were clearly more serious about getting back to work than the ratters, with 12 trillion ISK worth of value harvested compared to 10 trillion ISK in July and just over 2 trillion ISK for August.

Of course, mining value isn’t as straight up comparable month-to-month as bounties. The problem is that the price of ore and minerals change, and if you look at the price indexes, you can see that mineral prices are on the rise.

September 2017 – Economic Indices

Since the mineral price index is up that much, the actual amount mined in Delve could have been less than July. However, the output was almost assuredly more than August.

And then there is production.

September 2017 – Production Values by Region

As with ratting and mining, production jumped back up with our return home, with the value jumping up from 12 trillion ISK to almost 20 trillion ISK in value produced, putting the region just behind The Forge, the center of production for Jita sales. (Though you can add in Lonetrek and The Citadel when it comes to Jita production.) While, if mining value is pegged to the market, then production is doubly so I suppose, but at least you can peg it to other regions.

Then there is the final chart I like, the regional summary, that puts a range of things side by side.

September 2017 – Regional Summary Stats

That stacks up Delve against other key regions in the game, where it ranks #3 for trade value and tops the chart for net imports. For all that mining and production we do, apparently we still have to import a lot of stuff from Jita.

There are many more charts with the report covering a variety of aspects of the New Eden economy, which you can find here.

The Imperium spent most of the middle of the month of August deployed in the north, staging out of the low sec system of Hakonen. This meant less people ratting and mining, but probably more important, less people defending the home region of Delve. That led to a sharp uptick in carrier and Rorqual losses. So, as one might expect, NPC bounties were way down for Delve.

August 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region

Hitting close to 3.6 trillion ISK in bounty payouts, that put the region down almost 5 trillion ISK from July, when the payouts totaled 8.4 trillion ISK. The August take was just 42% of the July number.

Still, that left Delve ahead of other heavily ratted regions such as Branch, Cobalt Edge, Outer Passage, and Period Basis, all of which remained fairly steady month over month. The overall effect of the deployment can be seen in the ISK sinks and faucets chart.

August 2017 – Top 8 ISK Sinks and Faucets

The bounty payouts dip and recover on the chart as the Imperium deployed then returned home. That dip represents a little over half of Delve’s contribution to that chart, so you can see that it is significant, but also that bounties are being paid out elsewhere too. With Delve gone bounties would still the largest ISK faucet in the game by far. And, of course, 92% of bounties are still paid out in null sec.

It is also interesting to note the bump in insurance payouts and transaction tax and broker’s fee deductions during the deployment north as the Imperium bought out supplies in Jita and then lost piles of Typhoons. The interconnectivity of the economy is one of the powerful aspects of EVE Online.

On the mining front Delve was likewise down during the deployment.

August 2017 – Mining Value by Region

The dip in mining is even more dramatic that bounties, with the value assessed at 2 trillion ISK, down from over 10 trillion ISK in July. That is an 80% cut, though it is not surprising. Rorquals, the mining ship of choice in null sec space, were heavily targeted during the deployment. Many were blown up… the value of ships destroyed went from 1.4 trillion to 2.2 trillion ISK… while smarter miners chose not to expose their fancy ships to the danger.

Likewise, production in Delve was down as well, dipping by 50% as people threw themselves into the deployment.

August 2017 – Production Values by Region

The key economic figures summary chart also shows Delve dropping by half when it comes to trade value as well when compared to the July numbers.

August 2017 – Regional Stats

So that is the economic impact of the Imperium taking its show on the road for a few weeks.

However, we’re back in Delve again now, the defenses are back in place, and ratting and mining are relatively safe occupations for the wary again. I expect the numbers to bounce back to July levels this month, perhaps even exceeding them as people put in a bit of effort to make up for losses and lost time.

Getting straight to the ISK sinks and faucets chart, it does look like the changes in June update regarding super carrier ratting have continued to hold, as total bounties remain on a downward slope.

July 2017 – Top Sinks and Faucets over time

That still seems like a lot of ISK from bounties, even if the trend is downward for the moment. CCP made no further adjustments in the July update, and tomorrow’s planned update does not mention anything in that regard in the patch notes.

However, while the overall amount from bounties is down, in Delve they are actually up some, topping the July number by about 400 billion ISK.

July 2017 – NPC Bounties by Region

That is still down from the May peak, when the number was 8.8 trillion ISK in bounties. But the bulk of the reduction in the bounty pay outs seems to be coming from other regions in New Eden.

Likewise, the care bear reputation of Delve is reinforced by the mining output for the region.

July 2017 – Mining Value by Region

That chart shows the value of mining in Delve up from 8.5 trillion ISK in June to 10.2 trillion ISK in July. Of course, those values are influence by the market value of the output, so if actual ore mined was the same, but prices rose, that output value would rise as well. I don’t watch the mineral and ore markets, so couldn’t tell you if actual amount mined was up or if prices are rising some.

And then there was production, which was up considerably since June, no doubt consuming all that mining output and then some.

July 2017 – Production Value by Region

Delve became the number one manufacturing region in New Eden, edging out The Forge by about a trillion ISK in value. Though, if you add up the regions close to Jita, The Forge, The Citadel, and Lonetrek, high sec manufacturing for the Jita market is still dominant.

Looking at the key economic indicators chart, you can see that Delve still imports a lot, most of it from Jita, while the exports are negligible.

July 2017 – Key Regional Stats Compared

So I suppose I can be all “Yay Delve! We’re #1” and such.

However, since the beginning of August the Imperium has taken its show on the road, landing in Hakonen in the Lonetrek region, where we seem determined to anchor a Fortizar no matter how many attempts it takes.

With all the combat pilots moving north, those left behind hoping to rat and mine in peace have been in for a rude awakening, with Rorquals and carriers going down in flames to roving gangs. The Delve defense system has been denuded and losses have been mounting.

So the question will be how much of an impact will this have on the Delve ratting and mining numbers? Will Delve top the charts for player ship losses come the August report? Tune in next month to see what sort of change is in store.